Bob_A

I've done that ... a nice picture of the car floating (or sinking, more like) 400 metres of the coast of Spain

I have had ongoing problems with the Skoda GPS. It regularly loses lock and on several occasions has positioned the car in the middle of the Mediterranean. But it doesn't just affect the Skoda Navigation (which I wouldn't want to rely on anyway). Sometimes it tries to wrestle location control from Apple Maps and override Apple's consistently accurate location information. Eventually Apple wins, but in the meantime it reflects Skoda's inaccurate view of the world. But the issue is worse/deeper than that. When the Skoda GPS goes haywire, it looses local speed limit information, which in turn renders the ACC inoperable and road-sign recognition fails. This makes the car dangerously unsafe. The car is new, under warranty, and I'm not going to bodge a repair. I have complained several times to my Skoda dealer but because the fault is intermittent and not logged by the car, they claim that they cannot do anything about it. Needless to say, whenever I try to rock up to the dealership the car behaves itself. The electronics on these cars are not fit for purpose.

I naively thought the problem had resolved itself, because it hadn't happened for a while. But then we drove from Spain to the UK through the channel tunnel. The Skoda navigation in the central driving dials display accurately tracked our position through Spain and France. I used CarPlay on the central screen for the primary source of navigation information, and it was unfailingly accurate. We then emerged from the tunnel at Folkestone. Apple CarPlay accurately picked up the new position. But the Octavia's navigation still had me circling around Calais. This continued all the way home. I tried pulling to the side of the road, resetting the infotainment system, getting out of the car, locking and waiting before reopening. But the Skoda navigation persisted in giving me an eagle's eye view of Calais. The problem, of course, isn't just with the Navigation, because unless I disable the ACC, it keeps suggesting I'm travelling at the wrong speed and - very dangerously in my opinion - tries to brake the car automatically in a very unsafe way. And here's another thing: after resetting the infotainment, for a few minutes the Apple system seemed to oscillate between picking up the Skoda GPS location and its own. Eventually the Apple position won and it stabilised (and fortunately while this was going on I was on a familiar road). Then, the following morning, I powered up the car and the Skoda navigation had finally worked out where I was. It's as if it takes days rather than minutes to get a stable GPS lock. This car has **** for brains. Merry Christmas.

I have shared the photographic evidence with them. But the car's diagnostic computer still shows no errors, and the system randomly re-sets itself after a while. I like to think the dealership believes me. But I also think they don't know what to do about it.

My Skoda Octavia 1.5 PHEV has unsurprisingly developed yet another irritating intermittent fault: the navigation system looses GPS lock and (I am living in a coastal location) positions the car in the middle of the sea. It then concludes that it must be outside coverage area for traffic sign recognition, can't work out what the local speed limit is, etc. The Apple Maps in CarPlay manages to find and follow the right location, so it cannot be down to an external GPS signal, so this is yet another example of Skoda's electronic incompetence. Needless to say, because the fault is intermittent, my local Skoda dealer will claim they can do nothing about it. Is anyone else suffering?

I could not recommend the current generation of Skodas. It’s not just the infotainment systems - the core systems (including engine start) are unpredictably unreliable.

Today's update: I drove all the way back to Denia for the second time in a week. Earlier, the latest upgrade had managed to leave me without any internet connectivity, despite having just paid for a year's cubic telecom contract. This time, they managed to temporarily restore internet connectivity BUT only at the cost of disabling my user ID. When they managed to restore the user ID, it had destroyed the internet connectivity again. So it appears that you can only have two out of the following three: latest upgrade and/or internet connectivity and/or your personalised user ID. Combining all 3 is apparently impossible. I'm not sure I blame the technicians at the local dealership. They can only follow the instructions and use the tools that Skoda provides them with. Even they acknowledge that Skoda's software is crap. But this whole debacle raises serious questions about the quality of Skoda's software development and pre-release testing. One of the bugs (the one that causes the car to stall without notice when driving slowly through relatively shallow standing water) could potentially result in a fatality. I wonder how many other potentially fatal flaws are lurking in Skoda's software code?

It will come as no surprise to any of you that when Jose Jorro Denia implemented the update, they managed to break the internet connectivity at the same time. The Skoda configuration wizard is of no help whatsoever, so I will no doubt have to drive all the way to Denia again to get them to fix it. Regarding the update: the car started when I picked it up, but as Skoda drivers know only too well, one swallow does not make a summer, and this proves nothing.

So - I booked the car in to be upgraded yesterday and was told they wanted to keep the car in overnight. This morning, I asked the Skoda dealer (Jose Jorro in Denia) how the car was doing and was told (and I quote) "The update is going according to plan, but it's true that this morning, when we logged into the brand's software program, which is supposed to complete the update, it was causing problems across Spain. We know they're working on it to resolve the situation." I have no confidence in Skoda's ability to "resolve the situation". You really couldn't make it up, could you? This car has the most disastrous electronics of any car I have ever owned (and I've owned a few duds in my time).

Firstly - and thank goodness - the "computer say no" starting problem hasn't manifested itself for a few months now, although I still approach hitting the starter button (and driving in very wet weather) with a huge amount of trepidation. To my enormous surprise, over the last few days, my Spanish Skoda dealer has informed me that Skoda have finally come up with an update which is alleged to solve the problem. I have booked the car in for the middle of the month. However, if you hear a very loud explosion in the Valencia region on the 16th August, it will be because they have failed to resolve the issue and I have detonated a small thermonuclear device purchased from the local Chinese Bazaar at the dealership.

My Skoda dealer has updated me regularly. The fix that was promised to them by Skoda HQ for before the end of March has still not been released. The dealer has now run out of ways to apologise. But I bet it hasn't stopped them selling new cars of the same model to hapless punters. Fellow members of the Skoda m-HEV victim support group all still face the uncertainty of not knowing whether the brand new car that we rely on for transport will start when we need it to start. This is beyond farce.

I have this problem (and many others) regularly with my Spanish registered Octavia 2024 1.5 Estate PHEV. I wish I had declared the car to be unfit for purpose and returned it for a full refund when the problem first came up. I agree with you that this is unacceptable.

My first start failure was when weather was cold. Then it happened a few times when it was warm. Then it happened when it was hot. Then, whilst driving slowly through shallow standing water, and without generating any significant bow wave, the car decided to come to a halt with a 48v system failure. I have concluded that the car doesn't like to be used in any atmospheric conditions. We all deserve full refunds, plus generous compensation for the frustration and wasted time. And the buffoons who programmed the electronics deserve to be publicly flogged (or at the very least ritually humiliated) on a daily basis without appeal or scope for redemption. Needless to say, Skoda has even risen to the challenge of making things even worse, rubbing a healthy dose of salt into the wound. The car was bought in Spain last year, with a theoretically Europe-wide assistance service. But when the car failed to start in the UK, Skoda's UK assistance number (which is subcontracted to the AA*) refused to attend the car because it had a Spanish plate. (*) I have concluded that the AA must stand for Ar*ewholes Anonymous

The dealer is configured in the MySkoda app. They never followed up on the issue. I ran an ODB trace and the 48v issue didn't appear. This is - by a distance - the worst new car I have ever had the misfortune to buy.

I may have got my acronyms wrong. I think it's probably an mHEV. It's crazy (and very dangerous) that a mild hybrid boost system failure should be capable of shutting down the primary petrol drivetrain.